Performant Financial Corporation Announces Financial Results for Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2015

LIVERMORE, Calif., Feb. 25, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Performant Financial Corporation (Nasdaq:PFMT), a leading provider of technology-enabled recovery and related analytics services in the United States, today reported the following financial results for its fourth quarter ended December 31, 2015:

Fourth Quarter Financial Highlights

Total revenues of $41.1 million, compared to $39.7 million in the prior year period, up 3.4%

Net income of $2.2 million or $0.04 per diluted share, compared to a net loss of $(2.4) million, or $(0.05) per diluted share, in the prior year period

Adjusted EBITDA of $9.8 million, compared to $4.9 million in the prior year period

Adjusted net income of $4.0 million, or $0.08 per diluted share, compared to an adjusted net loss of $(0.2) million or $(0.00) per diluted share, respectively, in the prior year period

Full Year 2015 Financial Highlights

Total revenues of $159.4 million, compared to $195.4 million in the prior year period, down 18.4%

Net loss of $(1.8) million, or $(0.04) per diluted share, compared to net income of $9.4 million, or $0.19 per diluted share, in the prior year period

Adjusted EBITDA of $28.8 million, compared to $44.7 million in the prior year period

Adjusted net income of $6.6 million, or $0.13 per diluted share, compared to $15.3 million and $0.31 per diluted share, respectively, in the prior year period

"Although 2015 was another transitional period, we made aggressive expense management decisions and managed our business with the intent of maintaining a strong financial platform," said Lisa Im, Performant's Chief Executive Officer.

Fourth Quarter 2015 Results

Student lending revenues in the fourth quarter were $32.8 million, an increase of 7.0% from $30.7 million in the prior year period. The U.S. Department of Education and Guaranty Agencies accounted for revenues of $9.7 million and $23.2 million, respectively, in the fourth quarter of 2015, compared to $13.7 million and $17.0 million in the prior year period. Student loan placement volume (defined below) during the quarter totaled $0.9 billion, compared to $1.7 billion in the prior year period. This figure reflects the lack of placements under our contract with the Department of Education, which expired in April 2015 and remains in a delayed re-bidding process.

Healthcare revenues in the fourth quarter were $4.3 million, up from $2.4 million in the prior year period. Medicare audit recovery revenues were $2.8 million in the fourth quarter, an increase of $1.3 million from the prior year period. Commercial healthcare clients contributed revenues of $1.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2015, an increase of $0.5 million from the prior year period.

Other revenues in the fourth quarter were $3.9 million, down from $6.6 million in the prior year period. This decrease is primarily due to a tax amnesty program conducted in the fourth quarter of 2014.

As of December 31, 2015, the Company had cash and cash equivalents of approximately $71.2 million.

Full Year 2015 Results

Revenues for the full year ended December 31, 2015 were $159.4 million, a decrease of 18.4% compared to $195.4 million in the prior year period. Student Lending revenues declined 13.7% to $119.4 million from $138.3 million in 2014. Student Loan Placement Volume totaled $5.3 billion as compared to $6.7 billion in the prior year. Healthcare revenues declined 38.8% to $19.9 million from $32.5 million in the prior year. Other revenues declined 18.3% to $20.1 million from $24.6 million in the prior year

Net loss for the full year was $(1.8) million, or EPS of $(0.04) per share on a fully diluted basis, compared to net income of $9.4 million or EPS of $0.19 per share on a fully diluted basis in 2014. Adjusted EBITDA for 2015 was $28.8 million as compared to $44.7 million in 2014. Adjusted net income for 2015 was $6.6 million, resulting in adjusted earnings per share of $0.13 on a fully diluted basis. This compares to adjusted net income of $15.3 million or $0.31 per fully diluted share in 2014.

Business Outlook

"The same challenges that we faced in 2015, including the suspension of placements from the Department of Education pending the contract re-bidding process, reduced student loan recovery fees and limited audit scope under the RAC contract during that contract transition process, have continued into 2016. We anticipate that 2016 will be softer than 2015 primarily due to the delayed impact on our revenues of reduced student loan placements in 2015. Further, even if we are successful in obtaining the outstanding contract awards there will be a several month implementation period before we would begin to see significant new revenues. As a result, we expect 2016 full year revenue to be in the range of $125 to $135 million," concluded Im.

Note Regarding Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

In this press release, to supplement our consolidated financial statements, the Company presents adjusted EBITDA and adjusted net income. These measures are not in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) and accordingly reconciliations of adjusted EBITDA and adjusted net income to net income determined in accordance with GAAP are included in the "Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Results" table at the end of this press release. We have included adjusted EBITDA and adjusted net income in this press release because they are key measures used by our management and board of directors to understand and evaluate our core operating performance and trends and to prepare and approve our annual budget. Accordingly, we believe that adjusted EBITDA and adjusted net income provide useful information to investors and analysts in understanding and evaluating our operating results in the same manner as our management and board of directors. Our use of adjusted EBITDA and adjusted net income has limitations as an analytical tool and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for analysis of our results as reported under GAAP. In particular, many of the adjustments to our GAAP financial measures reflect the exclusion of items, specifically interest, tax and depreciation and amortization expenses, equity-based compensation expense and certain other non-operating expenses, that are recurring and will be reflected in our financial results for the foreseeable future. In addition, these measures may be calculated differently from similarly titled non-GAAP financial measures used by other companies, limiting their usefulness for comparison purposes.

Terms used in this Press Release

Student Loan Placement Volume refers to the dollar volume of defaulted student loans first placed with us during the specified period by public and private clients for recovery. Placement Volume allows us to measure and track trends in the amount of inventory our clients in the student lending market are placing with us during any period. The revenue associated with the recovery of a portion of these loans may be recognized in subsequent accounting periods, which assists management in estimating future revenues and in allocating resources necessary to address current Placement Volumes.

Earnings Conference Call

The Company will hold a conference call to discuss its fourth quarter and full year 2015 results today at 5:00 p.m. Eastern. A live webcast of the call may be accessed on the Investor Relations section of the Company's website at investors.performantcorp.com. The conference call is also available by dialing 877-705-6003 (domestic) or 201-493-6725 (international).

A replay of the call will be available on the Company's website or by dialing 877-870-5176 (domestic) or 858-384-5517 (international) and entering the passcode 13630175. The telephonic replay will be available approximately three hours after the call, through March 3, 2016.

About Performant Financial Corporation

Performant helps government and commercial organizations enhance revenue and contain costs by preventing, identifying and recovering waste, improper payments and defaulted assets. Performant is a leading provider of these services in several industries, including healthcare, student loans and government. Performant has been providing recovery audit services for more than nine years to both commercial and government clients, including serving as a Recovery Auditor for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Powered by a proprietary analytic platform and workflow technology, Performant also provides professional services related to the recovery effort, including reporting capabilities, support services, customer care and stakeholder training programs meant to mitigate future instances of improper payments. Founded in 1976, Performant is headquartered in Livermore, California.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding our outlook for revenues in 2016. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, estimates, assumptions and projections that are subject to change and actual results may differ materially from the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include, but are not limited to, that our agreements with CMS and the Department of Education, two of our largest customers, are currently subject to rebidding processes, that we have not received student loan placements from the Department of Education since April, 2015 due to the long-delayed contract re-bidding process, that we have significant indebtedness and the uncertainties in our business could impact our ability to maintain long-term compliance with our debt covenants, that contract transition rules have significantly limited our activity under the existing RAC contract, that the amount of commissions we are required to return to CMS due to successful appeals by the provider could exceed our estimated appeals reserve, the high level of revenue concentration among the Company's four largest customers, that many of the Company's customer contracts are subject to periodic renewal, are not exclusive and do not provide for committed business volumes, that the Company faces significant competition in all of its markets, that the U.S. federal government accounts for a significant portion of the Company's revenues, that future legislative and regulatory changes may have significant effects on the Company's business, that failure of the Company's or third parties' operating systems and technology infrastructure could disrupt the operation of the Company's business and the threat of breach of the Company's security measures or failure or unauthorized access to confidential data that the Company possesses. More information on potential factors that could affect the Company's financial condition and operating results is included from time to time in the "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" sections of the Company's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the nine months ended September 30, 2015. The forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this press release and the Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements to conform these statements to actual results or revised expectations

(1) Represents direct and incremental costs associated with expenses incurred in 2015 for a potential acquisition and related financing.

(2) Represents amortization of capitalized expenses related to the acquisition of Performant by an affiliate of Parthenon Capital Partners in 2004, and also an acquisition in the first quarter of 2012 to enhance our analytics capabilities.

(3) Represents amortization of capitalized financing costs related to financing conducted in 2012 and costs related to the amendment of the terms of the note payable in 2014.

(4) Represents restructuring costs and severance and termination expenses incurred in connection with termination of employees and consultants in 2015.

(5) Represents tax adjustments assuming a marginal tax rate of 40%.

(6) Represents gain on the sale of land in San Angelo, TX in 2015.

(7) While net income (loss) for the twelve months ended December 31, 2015 reflects a net loss of $(1,795), the computation of adjusted net income results in adjusted net income of $6,568. Therefore, the calculation of the adjusted earnings per diluted share for the twelve months ended December 31, 2015 includes dilutive common share equivalents of 617 added to the basic weighted average shares of 49,415.